Well, everyone there looks like a vampire!

The Nosferatu guy is really into it, lol

I started watching The Orville. It's fun, but slightly uncanny for how closely it resembles Star Trek: TNG in look and tone. Can't shake the feeling that I'm watching some parallel world's equivalent of Star Trek.

I haven't watched a feature-length big-production movie in ever so long. Youtube continues to offer a better product, imo, though admittedly it's getting harder to sift grains of gold from mounds of dirt. The gold is still there, just not as often promoted as it used to be.

Which brings me to the gist of this post. I discovered another YouTube Channel of interest. It's devoted to "ancient" Rome. The several videos I watched earlier today were well-made, informative, and entertaining. Here's the first episode I saw, the one that drew me to the channel when it mysteriously appeared among today's recommendations: The Last Pagans of Rome.

Yesterday evening I watch, complete on YouTube, the 1951 Alastair Sim "A Christmas Carol", a long-time fave of mine. So long as I don't watch it too frequently, this movie tends to warm the cockles of my heart, which takes a lot of doing. I unashamedly cried time and time again throughout the film. A Christmas Carol is lucky in having a decent number of top-notch film adaptations, but this one, for me, is best.

I don’t know if any of you are interested, but the MiL wanted the family to go see the new Avatar movie for her b-day yesterday. Now, being kinda “meh” about the first one, I didn’t have many feelings about this one. We saw it in 3D, so all of the problems associated with that apply.

A few comments:
1. The movie is just as beautiful as the first. That being said, some people might think that it’s “more of the same”. Frankly, coming out of it, I was thinking that the visuals were all there is to this movie.
2. The plot is a little too much like the first. The main guy, Jake is back, and this time he has a Naavi family, and through circumstances he and his family have to leave the forest and learn the ways of the aquatic Naavi tribes. That’s all I’m going at say about plot, but it’s very similar to the first, and the first one did it better, imo.
3. It’s suuuuper loooong! Like 3+ hours long. It’s probably 2 hours of visual eye candy scenes and one hour of actual plot points. Could’ve definitely trimmed it down a bit, but Cameron was definitely going for spectacle rather than substance.
4. The water Naavi are beautiful, as is their environment, but they felt like they were basically just the Pandoran version of the Māori people of the southern Pacific Ocean. Really missed an opportunity to do something unique with their culture, plus it’s a little jarring to see alien creatures on an alien planet do the Māori war face (haka).That said, the forest people of the first film could’ve been taken from any number of forest dwelling cultures of Earth, so maybe this would be expecting too much.

In conclusion, I’d say if you wanted to go to see this movie in the theatres, be prepared as it’s really long and know that you will be primarily going for the visuals, which are probably worth the price of a matinee maybe. I didn’t pay for my ticket, but I wouldn’t have liked paying full price as I do prefer having a decent story to go along with visuals.

As for me I'd rather just watch Terminator 2 again

Thanks Khajiit. I had no idea the new Avatar movie was even out already. That is about what I expected from it.

I watched News of the World last night. It was a good movie, I would stay the opposite of Avatar. It is substance over style. It is a Western starring Tom Hanks, who plays a man who travels around Texas and reads the news to people from world wide newspapers. By accident he ends up in charge of a young white girl who had been taken by Native Americans and raised in their culture as one of them.

Most of it is a road movie where they are traveling the roads as he is taking her back to her aunt and uncle, who are still alive across the state. Like all road movies, it is a series of vignettes all strung together as they meet various unsavory types and try to survive. Then finally it all wraps up with some character development as both he and her find their places in the world.

It is a good, simple movie, with strong performances by all involved.

Gosh, I love a road movie. News of the World sounds like just what I've been looking for. I have been in a viewing drought lately.

I remember seeing a trailer for that and thinking it looked interesting! I’ll have to check it out!

Just got done watching the 2 seasons available of a Netflix documentary show called Rise of Empires: Ottoman. The first season covers Sultan Mehmed II’s conquest of Constantinople while the second season covers his initial war against Vlad III Dracula in Wallachia. The series didn’t go into a lot of the detail that I would’ve liked (mainly talking about the Dracula content as it’s a story I am fairly familiar with), but I thought, as a whole, it was pretty well done and enjoyable.

The other day I again watched one of my favorite war movies, the 1970 Waterloo, after discovering that it can now be seen in full on YouTube at 1080p in what is termed a "Fan Cut", containing the "long" version of the film plus some inserted stills from segments that never saw release.

I watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves today. It was good! I recommend it to anyone who has played D&D, and anyone who has not. The acting was good. The story was good. The characters were interesting. It had humor.

It was also firmly set in Faerun, starting out with a small bit in Icewind Dale, then moving to the main part of the story in Neverwinter. It has lots of D&D critters and factions, like the Harpers, and Red Wizards of Thay. There are Displacer Beasts, a Gelationous Cube, and even a Mimic.

All in all it was a fun ride and a delight.

Is this hosted on a channel or service? Hmm, guess I'll just do a search. Wow, 4.3 out of 5 iMDb "Customer ratings". Google says DnD: Honor Among Thieves is hosted on Paramount +. Not sure if we have that. Maybe my mom's got P+.

Has anybody here has ever watched the Black Mirror series? The new season is out. Watched the first 4 episodes (out of 5) and was like "meh".

The older Black Mirrors were all pretty advanced (in my opinion) creatively. Usually with heavy technological themes, such as the wife who brings her dead husband back to life through a paid service, which uses AI to reanimate the dead (Be Right Back). Or the gaming CEO who manages to capture likenesses of real-life employees, forcing them into his instance of a multiplayer game (U.S.S. Callister) except the likenesses also contain the emotions and thinking of their real-life counterparts. Which means the likenesses KNOW they're stuck in this stupid MMO! Or the little robot doll which is powered by AI taken from the brainpower of Ashley O {played by Miley Cyrus}. But it's discovered Ashley is being held a slave, and that the AI in the doll is limited to only a portion of the real Ashley O's thoughts.... (Rachel, Jack, and Ashley too).

Anyway, all of those episodes really captured my imagination. They all seemed original, even though their storylines are probably derivative of some other stories in literature. The new Black Mirrors just aren't as unique, or even creative as the old ones.

Guess you'd have to have viewed the other Black Mirrors. Not sure if anyone's seen this series... Would love to hear the impressions of anyone who has.

The D&D movie is on Amazon as well, though you have to pay for it.

Khajiit has a weird schedule this week, and so has today off. Currently watching Conan the Barbarian (80s). Fun!

Just watched the first episode of "Justified: City Primeval".

We saw the original iteration- based in Kentucky (so close to home) when it was first out. The first 2 and the final seasons were quite strong.

So far, City Primeval is looking good. Set in SubRosa's very on Motor City, our favorite Stetson hat-wearing US Marshal is going to be going up against a wonderfully psychopathic bad guy.

Better still, Timothy Olyphant's actual youngest child is playing his on-screen daughter. You can definitely feel the connection.

I read about this, sounds interesting. AND it's on Hulu YES! I'm gonna check Justified out.

Oh, I hadn't heard about this! Really enjoyed Justified, so will be keeping an eye on this when it becomes available over here. I remember the original City Primeval book by Elmore Leonard, wonder how close they stick to it. I do miss the excitement I used to feel when he released a new novel, I got hooked on him when I was a teenager and read Swag and then Stick, he was so, so good....

Just finished watching The Last Voyage of the Demeter. It was a good! It is a nice horror movie about the very beginning of Dracula, the eponymous voyage of the ship Demeter, that took him to England. It is just a tiny part of the book and various movies, but there was plenty there to turn into its own film. We know how it ends of course, but we don't know the fate of every single person on the ship. So there is some wiggle room when it comes to the ending. This is a horror movie, so just surviving is a victory.

I’ve always thought that little episode would make a great horror movie. Some of the first images of Dracula that comes to most people’s minds are probably of the mysterious gentleman with the tux, cape, and piercing stare. On the Demeter, there was none of that. Just Drac in his most bestial and brutal form. Imagine being stuck on that ship and seeing everyday a new body turning up and having no idea what was going on or if you were next. Truly horrifying stuff!

You called it. This is Dracula at his most horrific. The filmmakers chose to go the Nosferatu route for his appearance, and it makes for a creepy, hopeless situation as Dracula rations out the crew to last him across the voyage.

I’ve got to see it! What did you watch it on?

It's on Amazon, but you have to pay for it. I think it's still in theaters too. You might want to wait until its free.

I just finished watching a week long marathon of the Jurassic Park/World movies. It was nice to spend time with these old pals, good ones and less good ones alike. I loved how the villain in the final movie was Dodgson, the industrial spy who Nedry was working with in the first movie. He even had the shaving cream can that Nedry had used to sneak the dino DNA into.

“Dodgson! We’ve got Dodgson here!! See? Nobody cares.”

Nice hat. What, are you trying to look like a secret agent?

Anybody watch the new animated Batman series, Batman: Caped Crusader?

I have not even heard of it before.

I have been doing a John Carpenter-thon of late. I watched Halloween 3: Season of the Witch last week. I had never seen it before, because it has nothing to do with the Halloween franchise except the title. It was, ok. Kind of mid as the kids would say these days. Then I watched The Fog, and yesterday I did the original Halloween. Next I am thinking of trying the most recent ones from 2018 and on, with Jamie Lee Curtis back as Old Woman Laurie, still fighting Michael Myers.

OTOH, I also got in the mood to watch the original Thing From Another World from the 50s by Howard Hawks. It is one of the movies the kids are watching on TV in Halloween. And I was already thinking about watching it because it had come up in other things. So I might derail myself from Halloweens, to Things.

I have not. Last Batman movie I watched was the Joker one, with Joaquin Phoenix. And the last Batman *anything* I watched was probably something from way back, like in the '90s perhaps. But what do you think of Caped Crusader?

Mostly I watch stuff on Hulu or Netflix; just convenient for me 'cause it's at home. After dessert, getting ready for bed, etc. Red Election is the series I just finished.

PROS: Really gripping international terrorism drama. I like 'true crime' shows, not the comical stuff like House or Psych. Red Election has all sorts of twists & turns, I'd sometimes have to rewatch scenes just so my fried brain could understand what was going on.

CONS: The show makes the MI5 look like Keystone Kops. Little bearing on reality. But as a mock reality, it's a good story. Also, the end of RE kinda sucked. It just sort of *ended*, like they ran out of budget or plot. A good many Hulu or Netflix dramas end this way. Like... "that's it???" IT's over?

*sits down*

The link you provided says it’s on Disney+, is that true?

As for Caped Crusader, there were some… interesting creative decisions made but overall I enjoyed it. I think anyone who is a fan of Batman: The Animated Series will like it. It was created by Bruce Timm, the same guy who created Batman: The Animated Series.

I'm not sure if Red Election is on Dis+, I watched on straight Hulu.

That's good to know about the Batman animated series.

I spent the last few weeks watching Rings of Power. Then since I was still in a Tolkien mood, I rewatched the LOTR movies for the millionth time. Now I am watching the first Hobbit film.

I noticed something. The only way to cross a mountain range in the Tolkien-verse is by traversing some loathsome and monstrous realm of subterranean darkness, facing horrific monsters, before finally emerging upon the world of light once more at the far side of the mountain range. Goblintown, Moria, Shelob's Lair, Dimhallow Crypt. No one just walks around mountains, or through a pass between them. Granted, an evil wizard will call down a massive blizzard upon you if you try that...

Shelob’s Lair is especially bad because *if* you make it out, you are either right outside Minas Morgul, or in friggin’ Mordor, depending on which way you are going. Both are really bad places to be, lol

What are your thoughts on Rings of Power?

I have enjoyed Rings of Power quite a bit.

I read the Silmarillion once, way back in the late 80s or so. It was terrible. It was never meant to be a novel. It was basically a collection of Tolkien's historical notes on what happened in the time before the Hobbit and LOTR stories. His son found it after his death, and he knocked it into some sort of book form in order to get it published and cash in. It is simply unfilmable, as it is about not just dozens, but hundreds of different people who did things thousands of years apart. These are mostly elves after all, and other immortal beings.

I think the filmmakers have done an amazing job at taking that to create an actual, working story that people can follow. I like the characters. I like the look and feel of the show (it fits right in with the Peter Jackson movies as far as style). It looks a little smaller in scale, I think because of money reasons. Which I don't mind, as I am sure they are already spending a zillion dollars an episode as it is. I don't expect them to spend a zillion more.

I simply love the actress they have playing Galadriel, and her portrayal of her as 'merely' a 20th level Fighter. This is back when she was young and brash. Same with Elrond. The new character Adar makes for a really interesting villain, and is a great counter point to Sauron on the bad guy's side. Sauron is well done too. Season Two is basically the Sauron show. Including a very Lovecraftian scene of him early on. TBH, I think they kind of overdo him, even as the Dark Lord, he sometimes seems too OP. Maybe it is just because things he honestly has no control over still have a way of just happening to go his way.

Mrs. Khajiit and I enjoyed it as well. I read both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as well as watched the Peter Jackson movies. She didn’t actually read LotR but did read a bit of The Silmarillion, and of course saw all the movies. We really don’t get the hate that RoP gets. The first season was fine, certainly not as awful as people made it out to be, and we both agreed that the second season was really good! We really like how Sauron has been portrayed, particularly in S2. The way he always seems to be a step or two ahead of everybody else with his schemes and deceptions really helps explain why he was considered so dangerous. That horrific segment at the beginning of S2 was sick and gives another more tangible reason he is rightly feared. My personal favorite character is Adar. This guy’s story is just so interesting to me and tragic. The actor change for him in S2 was a little jarring at first, but I thought the new guy (Sam Hazeldine) did a fantastic job.

I was thinking about it, and I don't think the Silmarillion has much to do with Rings of Power after all. As I think back more, I believe it was pretty much all about the First Age in Beleriand, and the fight against Morgoth - the original Dark Lord. But I could be wrong. I have not read it since the 80s.

ROP gets hate for several reasons. First it is not exactly the same as what was presented by Tolkien and his son in the appendices. So the pedants in the fandom automatically attack it like rabid beasts. They did the same thing with the Peter Jackson movies, which were outstanding. You cannot call yourself a fan of something unless you absolutely despise it after all. I say that sarcastically, but well, it's also just factual these days.

I think the bigger reasons is that season one especially has a prominent female lead in Galadriel, which white supremacists hate. And it has People of Color, which white supremacists hate. It is really just that simple.

I also liked Adar a lot. He was a good villain. On one hand I believe he genuinely considered himself to be the father of the orcs, and that he wanted to free them from the yoke of the oppressive Dark Lords who had up to that point perpetually enslaved them and used them as arrow fodder. He was so determined to save them from that fate that he enslaved them and used them as cannon fodder. At the end of the day he was just as much an authoritarian ruler as Sauron or Morgoth, and just as willing to kill them all to get what he wanted. So naturally they did what they did.

I also think that Sauron genuinely believes that he is going to heal Middle Earth. But he is who he is, so that means laying waste to Eregion and killing all the elves of course. And all the humans, and all the dwarves, etc... He is a monster, and he cannot escape that. Even when he convinces himself that he can be better.

Peace by making Middle Earth a graveyard, lol

Wasn’t there a famous saying about the Romans that was similar?

Yes. "They make a desert and call it peace." Quite apt.

Symphony de Vector.

So you got it! Nice!